June 2001
Highlights for the month:
Deadline Approaches for Two NCDB PCEs
The deadline for paper submission of the Hepatocelluar and Intracranial/CNS PCE studies is June 30, 2001. These materials should be sent to the American College of Surgeons, CoC/NCDB, 633 North Saint Clair St., Chicago, IL 60611. Electronically submitted cases for these PCEs will be part of the next NCDB Call for Data that will take place at the end of this year.
Highlights
New Web-Enabled System Testing to Get Under Way
The CoC will soon be working with cancer registrars from ten Commission-approved cancer programs to test the new National Cancer Information Center (NCIC) system. The NCIC program is a collaborative effort with the American Cancer Society to provide quality information to cancer patients about services available in approved programs. The CoC will contact approved programs in early July regarding the launch of this new system on August 1. Please see the February 2001 issue of CoC Flash for additional details or contact Connie Blankenship at cblankenship@facs.org for more information.
Highlights
HHS Final Rule on Confidentiality of Health Information
The May issue of CoC Flash reported on the comments submitted to the HHS by the American College of Surgeons. In that communication, the ACoS related its concerns about the final rule for Standards for Privacy of Individually Identifiable Health Information. To expand on that, the CoC, during a recent meeting of the Sponsoring Member Organizations of the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries (NAACCR), agreed to participate in a work group to review, interpret, and communicate the impact of the ruling to the constituencies of the sponsoring member organizations (ACS, CDC, CoC, NAACCR, NCRA, NCI, Health Canada and Statistics Canada) involved in cancer registration. All of the organizations are supportive of the collaborative approach to work together to review the rule and disseminate one communication that addresses the specific concerns of each organization's constituency. We would like to hear from Commission-approved programs with issues and concerns regarding the rule so we can summarize them for consideration by the work group. Please submit comments to coc@facs.org this month.
Highlights
Cancer Programs Increase Full-Approval Ratings
In 2000, the CoC surveyed 377 cancer programs with 40% receiving a full-approval status. This represents a 10% increase in full-approval compared to programs surveyed in 1999. The number of programs only receiving one-year approval awards declined from 19% in 1999 to 7% in 2000. Following a concerted effort, the CoC also improved its response time for issuing approval award letters. A response is sent an average of 10.6 weeks following the survey. (The Accreditation and Standards team continues to work to further improve this response time.)
A review of the surveys performed in 2000 revealed that the most common deficiencies in mandatory standards were as follows (in order by frequency): 3.3.1-Multidisciplinary conference, 3.2.5-AJCC stage by physicians, 2.2.13-Content of Annual Report, 7.2.1-Two completed studies, 7.5.1-Two improvements, and 8.9.3-Quality control of 10% of cases.
Highlights
SEER Summary Stage 2000 Available on Web
A Summary Stage 2000 Web-based instructional module is accessible on SEER's Training Web Site at http://www.training.seer.cancer.gov. The staging module contains material on cancer staging and summary staging in general, and also contains detailed instructional material regarding the new SEER Summary Staging Manual-2000, including hands-on exercises.
The SEER Summary Staging Manual-2000 is also available on SEER's Web site at http://seer.cancer.gov/Publications/SummaryStage. The printed version of this publication will be available after July 1, 2001. It will be distributed to hospitals through state and SEER central registries participating in the National Program of Cancer Registries (NPCR) or the SEER Program. Online ordering along with the other SEER publications will be available following this distribution.
Highlights
More Than 100 Volunteers to Test Collaborative Staging System
More than 100 cancer registrars from various settings have volunteered to field test the new Collaborative Staging System later this month. Site-specific standardized data sets have been developed from which TNM, EOD, and SS will be derived. These volunteers will assist the AJCC by testing the collaborative stage concept for more than 60 sites utilizing these data sets and case narratives. The Collaborative Staging System will be required for use by the cancer registry community beginning with cases diagnosed and treated January 1, 2003. Results from the field test will be posted this Fall on the AJCC Web site (www.cancerstaging.org). For more information about the field test, contact Lynda Douglas at ldouglas@facs.org.
Highlights
October Basic Registry Data Collection Workshop
October 22 through 26, 2001 the CoC will offer a basic registry data collection workshop in its Chicago office. The objective of this workshop is to provide attendees with the basic tools necessary to collect data as an integral part of a Commission on Cancer-approved program. This is an intensive training course with eight-hour class days and homework assignments. For additional details and registration information, please see our Web site at http://www.facs.org/dept/cancer/coc/regtrain.html.
Highlights
To Subscribe to CoC Flash
CoC Flash is e-mailed automatically each month to individuals for whom the Commission on Cancer of the American College of Surgeons has an e-mail address. If you wish to continue to receive the newsletter on a monthly basis, you need do nothing. You can discontinue your subscription by writing to coc@facs.org and requesting that your name be deleted from the database. Individuals not currently receiving the newsletter may subscribe to the publication by sending an e-mail message to coc@facs.org and asking to be added to our electronic distribution database.
To Submit Information
CoC Flash will accept submissions received by the monthly deadlines stated below. However, the CoC reserves the right to decide whether or not the materials are appropriate for inclusion. Information for CoC Flash should be timely, news worthy, brief, and of use and interest to the constituents of the Commission, which include cancer registrars, liaison physicians, cancer committee chairs, and other cancer-oriented health care professionals. To submit material, send it to coc@facs.org.
The Commission on Cancer of the American College of Surgeons is a not-for-profit, tax-exempt organization dedicated to decreasing the morbidity and mortality caused by cancer through prevention, monitoring and reporting of care, standard-setting, and education. CoC Flash is a monthly news service for constituents of the CoC provided by the Commission and the Cancer Department of the American College of Surgeons.
CoC Flash
Commission on Cancer
